Southern House Salad With Hot Bacon Dressing

This classic spinach salad is made with a traditional bacon dressing. The warm dressing is made with bacon drippings, vinegar, and sugar. The heat of the dressing wilts the spinach leaves and gives the spinach salad a wonderfully delicate sweet and sour flavor. The salad is garnished with sliced hard cooked eggs and crumbled bacon and potato slices. It gets some extra crunch from the red onion and radishes. It’s a simple salad with big flavor. See the variations for some add-in suggestions and ideas.

Instructions

Fry or microwave bacon until crisp; remove to paper towel and set aside.

Peel and quarter ptatoes, boil in water until they slide off the fork. (15-20 min)

In a saucepan, cover 2 large eggs with water. Place the pan over medium-high heat and bring to a full rolling boil. Cover the saucepan and remove the pan from the heat. Let stand for 12 to 15 minutes. Run cold water over the eggs and peel them. Put in fridge until cool.

In a small jar or measuring cup combine the bacon drippings with sugar, vinegar, water, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate all ingredients until just before serving. When ready to serve, microwave the dressing on HIGH for 30 to 45 seconds, or until mixture boils.

Toss the chopped egg (if using) and potato with the greens then pour the hot dressing over greens mixture; toss again lightly.

Arrange the salad on salad plates and top each with a few slices of egg and crumbled bacon.

Notes

Make Ahead: Prepare the spinach, onion, and radishes in a serving bowl; cover and refrigerate. Prepare the eggs and bacon and refrigerate them in separate containers. Prepare the dressing and refrigerate. Just before serving time, toss the chopped egg with the spinach salad mixture. Heat the dressing; drizzle over the salad and toss. Garnish with the sliced eggs and bacon.

Variations:Add about 1/4 cup of pine nuts, sunflower seeds, toasted slivered almonds, or toasted pecans to the salad for additional crunch.Add about 1/4 cup of raisins or dried cranberries to the salad.Add sliced fresh mushrooms to the salad.Omit the radishes, if desired.​

Nutrition Information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin and freshness of ingredients used.

Conversion Information We get a lot of requests to help with conversions especially between various countries like Canada, the U.K. and Australia. These tables should help you make those conversions. For your convenience we have included a Conversion Chart.

This Southern House Salad is a classic winner here at the cottage, we love this the year round! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday. Hope you have a great week and come back to see us real soon!
Miz Helen

I add bacon on my own salad depending on how I feel at the moment. My daughter-in-law and granddaughter are vegetarian so for sure they enjoy this salad bacon free. I hope you get to enjoy it! Enjoy your weekend!

Potatoes are a great addition to this southern classic. Hope you are having a fantastic week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday. We will look forward to seeing you again real soon!
Miz Helen

Thank you Leanna for the pin. I am glad you found my blog and enjoy sharing with you! Have a great week! (Here is the Bronners link. I forgot to include it in the other comment. https://www.bronners.com)

I need to try that dressing recipe! Having a bacon flavor might even persuade my non-salad-eating kids to try it. Thanks for linking up at the Home Matters Link Party! We hope to see you again next week:) #HomeMattersParty